France’s Total Energy Company Fires 70% of Russian Branch Staff

According to media reports, French energy giant Total has fired almost three-quarters of staff working in its Russian office in Moscow following the partial withdrawal from the Kharyaga oil field.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The French energy giant Total has fired almost three-quarters of staff working in its Russian office in Moscow following the partial withdrawal from the Kharyaga oil field, media reported Monday, citing sources in the company.

Total sold a half of its 40-percent share in the Kharyaga oil field production sharing agreement (PSA) to the Russian state Zarubezhneft firm earlier this month after a preliminary agreement was signed in January.

According to the Forbes magazine, some 420 people lost their jobs at Total, with some of them transferring to Zarubezhneft, which now owns a larger part of the oil field.

Before the sale of the Kharyaga shares to Zarubezhneft, Total was Russia’s largest foreign investor in the oil field. Apart from the 20 percent of Kharyaga PSA shares, Total has kept bilateral projects with the Russian Novatek technology company.

The Kharyaga production sharing agreement aims to develop two objects of the oil field in Russia's northern Nenets Autonomous Region. The geologically complex field produces 1.5 million tons of oil yearly, having raised some $3 billion for the Russian government since operations began in 1999.